Benjamin howell



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Shet1.

' B. HOWELL.

l ANNEALING FURNACE. No. 363,292. Patented May 1'7, 188-7.

3 @3 55 .5 5i 5 :i lfmflf m PETERS, PhnlwLzlhogmphor, Washington D C (NoModel.) I I 2 SheetsSheet 2.

B. HOWE LL.

ANNEALING PURNAGE.

No. 863,292. Pasented May 17 1887. 9 r

mhqessss:

UNITED STATES PATENT Unmet.

BENJAMIN HOWELL, OF SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO XVILLIAM N. WHIIELEY,OF SAME PLACE.

ANNEALlNG-FURNACE.

FJPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 363,292, dated May 1'1887- Application filed July 9, 1886. Serial No. 207,570. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN HowELL, a citizen of theUnited States,residing at Springfield, in the county of Clark and State of Ohio, haveinvented a new and Improved Annealing-Furnace for Malleable Iron; and Ihereby declare the following to be such a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same as will enable any person skilled in the art towhich it pertains to construct and use the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to furnaces in general,

and particularly to furnaces wherein the fire is built in a separatecompartment and the heat drawn over a bridge wall or through open-- inesinto another compartment wherein is placed the material to be heated,such as malleable iron or other substances requiring uniform and longcontinuedheating.

The objects of my invention are, first, to so construct the fire-box ofa furnace that the gas from the burning coal shall be completelyconsumed, thereby adding a large percentage to the effective heatingcapacity of agiven amount of coal, and consequently requiring much lesscoal to perform a given amount of work; seeond,to so construct thereceiving-oven of a furnace that the heat shall be uniform upon allsides of the mass to be heated and capable of heating the cold materialup to the required point in a short time and with a moderate consumptionof coal, and, third, to so construct the annealing pot or receptaclethat the heated air, gases, &e., may pass under as well as around them.I accomplish these objects by the construction illustrated in theaccompanying drawings and hereinafter described.

I11 the drawings, Figure 1 is an interior per spective View of myfurnace, thefront wall having been removed for the purpose of showingitsconstruction. Fig. 2 is ahorizontal section through theflues and a planof the firebox. Fig. 3 is a transverse section through thereceiving-oven and fire-box. Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section throughthe firebox. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section through the receivingoven.Fig. 6 is ahorizontal section through the flues; and Fig. 7 is aninterior perspective View of a modification of the form of dues, &c.shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4., and 5.

Similar letters refer to like parts in the several views.

The receivingoven A and fire-box B are placed side by side and separatedby the wall 0. Over the top of each are the arches ab, the whole beinginclosed by the side walls, I) E,-and end walls, F G.

The top of the floor of the receiving oven or chamber is level with thetop of the gratebars 0 of the fire-box, under which is the ashpit d, inthe usual form. The material to be annealed is placed in what istechnically termed pots, each of which consists of three oblongcast-iron boxes placed one above the other and arranged in such a formas to nearly fill the chamber, leaving only a narrow space at the sides,ends, top, and bottom, the space at the bottom being secured by castingto the bottom of the lower division of the pots downwardlyprojectingribs or supports which elevate the bottom of the pot a few inches fromthe floor of the receiving-oven. The arrangement of the pots in the ovenis shown by dotted linesffff in Figs. 3 and 5, the transverse spacesformed by the ribs cast on the bottom of the pots being shown at s s 3.These supports or ribs may be cast on the pot or be in the form of railssecured to the floor of the receivingoven, or be loose bars laid uponthe floor, as desired, but should be placed in such direction as to formflues for the passage of heated air, gases, &c., in the same directionas such currents pass over the mass to be heated.

Beneath the floor of the receivingoven are arranged a series of lines,J, J J J, J and J, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the dividingwalls 6 ofwhich furnish the proper support for the floor of the receiving-oven. 7'

Through the wall 0, and nearly at the top, is a series of openings, gthrough which the heated air, gases, 850., pass from the fire-box B tothe receiving-oven A. Two of'these openings, g, at the front end of thefire-box are made smaller than the remainder, g", for the purpose ofpreventing the front of the mass from overheating, as the heat is muchgreater at the front end of the firebox than elsewhere. Another opening,is made near the back end of the fire-box and near the floor of thereceiving-oven, for the purpose of sufficiently ICO receiving-chamber Aand whose lower ends connect with the side flue, J, which connects atthe front end with the flue J which in turn connects at the back endwith fine J and so on, the last flue, J connecting with the smokeflue K,leading to the smoke-stack.

The operation of my furnace is as follows, viz: The material to beannealed having been if; placed in the annealing pots and the potsarranged in the receiving-oven, as before described, the doors N M arebricked up, leaving only a small opening for observing the progress ofthe work, which opening is closed by a loose brick. The fire is builtupon the grate-bars c, and the flames, heated air, gases, & c., passthrough the openings 9, g, and g in direction of the arrows, andcompletely en- 1 velop the sides, ends, top, and bottom of the 2 5 mass,and escape down through the openings h h, thence successively throughthe flues J, J J J, J, J, and K to the smoke-stack. In theirpassagethrough the lines the floor of the recelvin goven is evenly andefficiently heated, and by providing a space between the bottom of thepots and the floor the mass to be heated is uniformly and effectivelyacted upon. The operation of annealing being completed, the doors N Mare opened and the pots removed, after which they remain open for thepurpose of cooling. off the furnace.

In Figs. 6 and 7 is shown a modification of the arrangement of finesunder the floor of the receiving-oven. In this case the openings or 0recesses h h are replaced by a series of openings, a a, through thefloor at the front end of the receiving oven. These openings connectwith a corresponding series of flues, m at, whose rear ends open into atransverse flue, p, which connects with the smoke-fine K, and thence tothe smoke-stack.

In constructing an annealing-furnace after my plan the fines may beplaced transversely instead of longitudinally, or the series may bedivided into two systems opening into a centersmoke-flue, or in variousways my plan may be modifiedwithout changing its essential features. 7 i

It will be noticed that the fire-box Bis made very high in proportion toits width, for the purpose of providing a large combustionchamber, ithaving been ascertained in practice that the gases are more perfectlyconsnmed,,and therefore a given amount of coal produces a much largerproportion of heat.

I am aware that annealing-furnaces have heretofore been constructed inwhich the firebox and receiving-oven were located side by side, or withone fire-box to two receivingovens, the former placed between the twolatter as, for instance, in the annealing-oven of Reynolds United StatesPatent No. 52,605;-

but in this case the grate-bars are set so far above the level of thefloor of the receivingoven that the combustion-chamber or fire-box is sosmall that the fuel is very imperfectly consumed and alarge percentageof it is wasted, while the material to be annealed is very slowlyheated. The gases and similar products of combustion have also beencarried through the wall dividing the fire-box from the receivingoven bya series of openings near the top thereof, but no provision was made forinsurin g a passage of heated air, &c., across the rear ends of the massto be annealed. In my invention I accomplish this very necessary objectby means of the opening g. the usual form of furnace (as Reynolds UnitedStates Patent No. 52,605) the series of openings have been all the samesize. It is found in practice that, while the rear end of the mass isnot sufficiently heated, as above described, the front end is subjectedto too much heat. Therefore I have made the first two or three of theopenings much smaller than the others,

Again, in v and I find that it accomplishes the object perfectly and isa valuable improvement. There fore, although annealing-furnaces havebeen heretofore constructed whose general form bore some resemblance tothe one herein described, I am not aware that any have contained thepeculiar construction and arrangement herein described and claimed asnew viz., placing the grate-bars on a level with the bottom of thereceiving-chamber, thereby obtaining an unusually largecombustion-chamber, constructing the openings between thecombustionchamber and receivingoven of smaller size at the front end ofthe furnace, as at 9, Fig. 1, in order to prevent overheating at thispoint, providing an additional opening near the floor at the rear end ofthe furnace, as at Fig. 1, for the purpose of supplying heat to the rearof the mass to be heated, and

providing proper fiues beneath the floor of the portion of the parts asshown and described, or to any particular construction or device notessential to the principles of construction and mode of operation hereindescribed, What I do claim as new, and desire to secure by LettorsPatent, is--- 1; In an annealing-furnace, the combination of thereceiving-oven A, fire-box B, and the intermediate partition wall, 0,provided with the apertures g g in the top of the wall 0, also theapertures g, smaller than the others and in the front portion of saiddividing-wall, and a the vertically-elongated aperture g" in the lowerportion of said dividing-wall, with the escape-fines h h, connecting thelower portion of the oven A, and a series of horizontal flnes under thefloor of the same, substantially as shown and described, and for thepurpose of more uniformly heating the mass to be annealed.

2. In an annealing-oven, the combination of the firebox B and thereceiving-oven A with the partition-wall 0, provided with the openings gin the top of the wall dividing the fire-box and annealingchamber, theopenings 9, smaller than the others and in the'front portion of saiddividing-wall, the verticallyelongated openings 9 in the lower portionof said dividing-wall, and escape-fines connecting the lower portion ofthe oven with any suitable system of flues under the floor of thereceiving-oven for conducting away the products of combustion, all theparts being c011- strnoted and arranged substantially as described, andfor the purpose of more economically, evenly, and quickly heating thematerial to be annealed.

3. In an annealing-furnace, the combination of the receiving-oven A,fire-box B, and the partition-wall 0, provided with the apertures g, g gand g in the dividingwall-O, and progressively enlarging from the fronttoward the rear of said wall, and escape-apertures in or near the floorof said oven A, connecting the same with the return-fines J J J J J J",all constructed and arranged substantially as shown and described, andfor the purpose of more uniformly and quickly heating the material to beannealed.

BENJAMIN I-I OWVELL.

Witnesses: a,

OSCAR E. Pnnmeo, FRED STATE.

